Flat Holm island in the Bristol Channel is a fascinating place for abandoned buildings. There's what's left of a cholera isolation hospital, Victorian military barracks and lots of gun emplacements built, but never used, for fear of a French invasion.

There's also a fog horn station and I can still remember when I was a kid, hearing those horns blowing on foggy mornings.

Fog Horn Station

Remains of hospital

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

This is a fantastic thread and I love a good old ruin to explore. On the hols we found an old abandoned tin mine set in woodland with plenty of flowing water. The buildings are largely intact but overgrown and wouldn't look out of place in a 'Lord of the Rings' style setting. I'll be posting more on this place later but have edited this pic early to show the place.

My mate's ex-colleague acted as a guide for this trip and only discovered the place through voluntary conservation work. It is one of those hidden gems that even the locals don't seem to be aware off since it is relatively hard to get to. You have to find somewhere to park on a single track road and walk through what appears to be someone's driveway to get there.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

On Hootalinqua Island on the Yukon River there is the abandoned remains of the SS Evelyn, a river paddle steamer that was dragged ashore to be repaired and just left there. I took the photos in 1995 when I was kayaking in the area. There are a lot more shots of abandoned places on that trip if anyone is interested. Apologies for the quality as it isn't great as they are scans of old prints.

My favourite "abandoned" place... Paronella Park in Far North Queensland. It shows how you can marvel at the "lost" history of a place and keep that wonder and yet not let it fall into total decay. So many beautiful images of this place that I have put in a few links.

Paronella Park was built in the 1930s by José Paronella, a Spanish immigrant. José Paronella built facilities, including tennis courts and a cinema and a ballroom inspired by Spanish castles, to provide entertainment for the public. Since his death, a fire, a cyclone and several floods have badly damaged the park and the buildings. The park changed owners several times until, in 1993, it was bought by the present owners.

He actually installed hydro power in 1935 but I dont think he realised HOW BIG the rainfall got during a big wet season (monsoon) up that way. (and STILL it stands... he certainly built it strong)

Well Don yank Place is no secret. It was discontinued, after Amtrak ceased assistance there. Although I am not sure, exactly when that was. It's difficult to believe but detroit was once a very New york like city. It would be awesome, if it could be converted around somehow but that, seems almost difficult.

A long shot of the house on Holland Island is the wallpaper on my home laptop. It was a navigation mark for mariners for years, being the only large structure out there in a network of marsh islands and shoals. I have helped band many pelicans on Holland, and was there just a week before the house finally fell, in Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. There is not much left of the island - mostly marsh, a cemetery on a bit of ground slightly above sea level, and a clump of trees where the pelicans nest. You can't really tell from a distance where the house was anymore, and the backhoe that sat alongside it is completely submerged (the owner spent the last several years before it fell trying to save it by building a berm, planting saplings in salty sand, replacing doors and windows). I have a letter sent from Deal Island to Cambridge via Holland Island in the 1800s; it was large enough to have a school and a post office. Many houses were moved from Holland to various places on the mainland in the early 20th century, as it became apparent that the island was eroding away.